‘Pretty Weird’: Elon Musk Suggests NYT, Forbes ‘Bought Their Twitter Followers to Fake Influence’

Conservatives are returning, and liberals are departing in droves, as Twitter becomes the latest major corporation to be drawn into the raging US culture wars.

Elon Musk made fresh waves Wednesday after implying he believes The New York Times, Forbes, and other outlets may be manipulating Twitter with the purchase of artificial followers.

After conservative personality Dave Rubin pointed out that the Times “has 53 million ‘followers’ and rarely gets 50 [retweets]” on its posts and requested Musk investigate how such outlets “bought their Twitter followers to fake influence,” the world’s wealthiest man admitted he’d “noticed” the issue on the platform and conceded the phenomenon was “pretty weird.”

Elon Musk on Twitter

© Photo : Twitter/ @elonmusk

The comment was met with elation by other conservative figures, who see the post as vindicating their long-standing allegations that Twitter unfairly rewards some users and handicaps others algorithmically based on their political beliefs. In the days after acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk has continued to make his presence felt across the site, and this is just the latest in a number of recent viral tweets which may give a sense of the direction the world’s richest man plans to take the social media giant.

Tuesday night, Twitter’s new sole owner declared it “obviously incredibly inappropriate” that the New York Post was suspended after the platform accused them of violating their policy on “hacked materials” for publishing material derived from the laptop belonging to Hunter Biden which surfaced in 2020.

“Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate,” Musk acknowledged.

Despite claims at the time by over 50 former senior intelligence officials that the laptop’s humiliating contents were nothing more than “Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election,” numerous outlets subsequently verified the laptop did indeed belong to Hunter Biden and that the documents contained are authentic.

Worries over a potential backlash have already led to a mass exodus of liberals users–and a mass influx of conservatives –which some suggested could be a conspiracy until Twitter confirmed the numbers were legitimate. The boost in follower numbers after high-profile accounts were reactivated has given conservatives plenty to crow about, but with numerous anti-NATO commentators and journalists still banned by the platform, the jury’s still out on just what Musk’s management may mean for Twitter.

If @elonmusk was serious about restoring free speech on Twitter he would start here https://t.co/7rdjRnRjVD

— Wyatt Reed (@wyattreed13) April 25, 2022